Sunsets and Roses
by Tarado
Summary: An act of terrorism has left Luke injured and devastated. Only with the help of his family can he keep from sliding into the abyss of the dark side and learn to forgive. Updated.
1. Default Chapter

Here's the story. Enjoy.  
  
--T.  
  
Sunsets and Roses  
  
Chapter one  
  
The middle-aged secretary approached Luke with a kindly smile. "Can I get you something to drink while you're waiting, sir?"  
  
Luke shook his head, glancing around at the rich furnishings of Senator Glin Farzhaa's inner office. "No thanks, I'm fine."  
  
The woman smiled pleasantly. "Okay, then. The senator is due back at any moment. I'll send him in as soon as he arrives." With that, she left, shutting the door behind her, leaving Luke alone to stare somewhat impatiently at the office's expensive-looking relics, wishing Farzhaa would hurry.  
  
He thumbed through a handful of documents and scanned through the information he had uploaded into his datapad. After a couple of months of vague threats to and pointed attacks on various important landmarks of the New Republic, a small warring faction stationed in the outer rim had gone suspiciously silent. Investigations by NR Intelligence hadn't revealed anything very helpful, and many officials had begun to grow increasingly worried at the apparent lack of inactivity. It had been barely a week since the New Republic's Inner Council had assigned Luke, as a Jedi Master and sworn protector of the peace, the somewhat overwhelming task of heading an investigation to find out what was going on.  
  
Perhaps his anxiety stemmed from the fact that he knew much about combat and fighting tactics, but significantly less about the politics and liability where government began to be concerned. He also felt frustrated about the prospect of being so busy that he would not be able to spend as much time with his wife as he would like to, especially now, when their first child was due to be born in less than a month.  
  
Sighing audibly, Luke checked his chrono. Today was his and Mara's one day off from their hectic schedules, and they had both been anticipating it all week. I thought of going on a picnic, Mara had announced cheerfully that morning. Somewhere in the Manarai mountains. It's supposed to be beautiful this time of year. Luke had laughed and kissed her and told her he thought it was a good idea. But he should have anticipated that his day would be taken up instead by a haughty bureaucrat who valued no one else's time but his own.  
  
Farzhaa had volunteered his assistance to Luke in organizing and recruiting for the mission, help that Luke had gratefully accepted. But now that they had finally arranged to meet for the first time, the senator was late. Luke hoped that the cause was some extenuating circumstance and not the indication of a habit. He did not know Farzhaa personally-only by reputation-so he hoped his vague first-impression of the man was accurate enough to assure that they'd be able to get along.  
  
Luke thought back to Mara. His wife was eight months pregnant with a baby girl and was, to Luke, more beautiful than ever. He had a flitting vision of both of them on their picnic, sitting in a grassy field as the cool, aroma-laden breeze stirred their hair. He imagined one day taking their children to that same spot, smiling, happy, and relaxed. The Jedi smiled in spite of himself. He almost couldn't believe he was going to be a father. He and Mara, in their elation and great anticipation, had remodeled the guest bedroom of their apartment into a beautiful nursery, complete with music boxes, plush stuffed animals and an old-fashioned rocking chair. Realistically, it was far more than one baby would ever need, but they didn't care. Han had enjoyed reminding them, however, that they were set and ready to spoil their baby rotten.  
  
Small warning bells suddenly went off in the back of Luke's mind, pulling him away from his daydreaming. He glanced up sharply, eyes scanning the room. Everything was still and silent. From the outer office, he could hear the steady murmur of conversation and the tap of a keyboard-nothing out of the ordinary.  
  
But the warning of danger didn't leave. If anything, it seemed to intensify, growing to a ringing in his ears. Cautiously, brow knit with concern, Luke gathered his things and stood, leaving the elaborate office.  
  
"Excuse me," he murmured to the preoccupied secretary. She glanced up from her computer, eyebrows raised in query. "Have you contacted Senator Farzhaa?"  
  
"I haven't," she replied. "He's due back at any moment, I-"  
  
"Could you try to get a hold of him?" Luke cut her off. "This is important." The very urgent sense of danger was now virtually shouting in his mind for him to do something. But he didn't know what to do. Even straining his senses against the distraction, he could not see or detect anything out of the ordinary.  
  
Farzhaa's secretary did not take her eyes off Luke as she keyed the comm. Frowning she tried again. "Senator Farzhaa doesn't seem to be answering," she murmured. "I don't know why. Perhaps-"  
  
It was at that instant that Luke's danger sense-clamoring in his mind for attention-heightened to the point that he saw what was about to happen a split second before it did. Luke opened his mouth to shout a warning-only it was too late. A tooth-jarring rumble began to shake the floor, walls and ceiling. Amidst startled and frightened screams, a deafening crack split the air, causing the world to shudder violently before it seemed to disintegrate before his eyes.  
  
It was the last thing Luke remembered before the darkness took him.  
  
************** 


	2. chapter 2

Chapter two  
  
All of Coruscant was in chaos. Within thirty minutes of the bombing of the Senate building, news and media crews had pounced on the story and approached the destruction as close as they were able. Horrified bystanders got in the way and masses of rescue teams descended on the wreckage and devastation that had, four hours before, been a gorgeous architectural structure that housed the offices of political leaders all over the galaxy. Still, despite the throng of humans and aliens watching and wondering what had happened, very few actual facts about what had occurred could be relayed to the waiting public over the holovid.  
  
Mara Jade Skywalker, tired, sick and eight months pregnant, stood pacing the floor of the sitting room of Leia's-the Chief of State's-office as she had been for nearly two and a half hours. Garbled reports and static chatter came through the open comm. while the holovid was blaring grisly images of the unrecognizable mountain of smoking slag and rubble of the Senate building. A cool female voice was narrating the horrible sight for anyone who might not understand the grim implications of such devastation. There was an estimated 10,000 people in that building at the time of the bombing. Experts on hand predicted helpfully the type of thermal detonator that would have to be used in order to cause such an immediate collapse. They didn't know who had done it. They shouldn't expect many survivors.  
  
Mara clenched her teeth, head pounding, stomach roiling. "He was there," she said aloud. "I know he was there."  
  
Across the room, sitting with shoulders hunched in a strait-backed chair, Han Solo clenched his hands together tight enough that Mara could see his knuckles turn white. His dark gaze flicked to her and then to the comm. unit, listening to the voices of the relief pilots checking in.  
  
"There's nothing there, sir," the voice of one pilot reported. "Can you find any life forms?" "There's too much rubble-my sensors-" Another swore. "Ten thousand people trapped in that? There's no way there could be anything left."  
  
Solo watched Mara chew her fingernails and swear softly to herself. He considered asking her again if she was sure Luke had been in that building when it collapsed. Is he still alive? But if she hadn't known fifteen minutes ago, she probably wouldn't know now. He shifted in his chair and sighed, running a hand over his face. The maddening part was that he couldn't do anything. Fifteen minutes after the building's collapse, tinkering with his head in a nest of the Falcon's mismatched wires, he'd received a panicked call from Leia, telling him what had happened. Ten minutes later, he and Chewie were jostling their way through the throng of onlookers, pushing down their horror at what they saw. But no unauthorized civilians-no matter who they had connections to-were allowed into the "red tape" zone.  
  
The loss the NR would take in leadership was bound to be staggering. But only three hours after the bombing, no one knew how many political and military leaders would have been in their offices or somewhere in the vicinity of the Senate building.  
  
Han flicked his eyes to the door of Leia's inner office, wondering how long her emergency conference was going to go. He watched Mara sink into a chair and then get back up, face pinched in concentration. "They're starting on the northeast corner now," a voice droned over the comm. "Easy there, Toss. You got enough men down there?"  
  
The office door opened and Leia stepped wearily through. Han peered past her to see General Rieekan and Admiral Ackbar follow her silently in. Leia staggered over to the cold pot of kaffe and poured herself a glass. "All finished?" Han asked, clenching his hands back into white fists.  
  
"They're going to let Gavrisom be in charge of this one," she answered, swallowing the kaffe with a grimace. "Thank the Force."] "Yes."  
  
Han nodded, staring at the carpet, tracing the flower patterns with his eyes as he listened to the voices on the comm.  
  
"How are you doing, Mara?" Leia asked, pouring herself another cup and downing half of it in one swallow.  
  
The red-haired woman hugged her arms, suppressing a shiver. "I don't know," she answered quietly. "I can't feel him at all." Leia nodded in understanding, touching her sister-in-law's shoulder in sympathy.  
  
"We'll find him."  
  
"And you're sure he was caught in the building's collapse," Han blurted. He realized what he had just said aloud and, too late, snapped his mouth shut.  
  
Mara fixed him with a pained, icy stare. "I can't feel him," she repeated.  
  
Rieekan cleared his throat. "They're searching the debris for survivors," he murmured in a tone of voice that didn't seem to offer very much hope. "Just started about twenty minutes ago."  
  
Leia took a seat on the edge of the hard sofa, watched with pinched features the news coverage of the wreckage. Mara sat down in another chair, biting her lip, green eyes boring holes into the holovid. The voices over the comm. went on.  
  
********************  
  
More? 


	3. chapter 3

Thanks for your reviews! As always, I intend to finish this story as well as "Goodbye." But also keep in mind that I'm a college student who is insanely busy and never sleeps-and school is starting in a couple of weeks, which will give me different priorities. But in the meantime, enjoy the story!  
  
Chapter three  
  
It was cold.  
  
Luke thought back to times when he could remember being so cold. One had been when he was eleven years old, riding with Biggs in the older boy's speeder. They had been flying across the Judland wastes at speeds Luke had not thought possible. Flying, soaring..But then something had gone wrong. Biggs' speeder had smashed to a rough halt, kicking up clouds and piles of sand. Something had broken and the older boy did not have his tool kit. Now that Luke thought of it, it was lucky that they had not been attacked by sand people or died of thirst. But they ended up having to spend the night in the speeder. Because Tatooine is a desert planet, most people don't ever think that it could get cold. But nights on Tatooine were icy, bitter experiences that Luke did not care to remember. Like Hoth.  
  
Shivering, Luke came to full consciousness, opening his eyes to pitch blackness and raw, cold pain.  
  
His first instinct was panic. The darkness in front of him was so thick and black, he felt as though he were suffocating. Arching forward in an effort to draw a breath, he was met with an arc of pain that shuddered down his spine, through his arms, shoulders, ribs and head.  
  
*Don't move.*  
  
He lay back down, trying to think clearly and breathe slowly around the panic that threatened again to rise in his throat. Where was he? He couldn't remember. His head ached excruciatingly. It felt as though it was resting on jagged rocks. He felt wetness in his hair and down around his collar-*blood?* Cautiously, he moved his left arm to gingerly touch the spot on the back of his head, but was met with another paroxysm of pain shooting from fingers to shoulder. *Don't move. Right.*  
  
He gingerly tried his right hand. His arm felt okay, but his artificial right hand was stuck. *More rocks?* He wondered. Cautiously, he moved down, assessing his other injuries. Two, no three broken ribs. His legs.He could not feel anything below his waist, he realized. He had no feeling in his legs. In the darkness, the other half of him could be lying on the other side of the room, for all he knew and was able to feel. *Keep up the encouraging thoughts*, he growled to himself.  
  
His mind struggled to catch up and remember what had happened. How could he get out? He tried to recall what he'd last been doing. It seemed so distant and far away now, and his head hurt with trying to scrounge for memories that did not want to be found.  
  
Luke shut his eyes. There was something about a picnic and Mara. *Mara!* Had she been with him? No, no.he once again quashed the panic in his throat. He had been meeting with Senator Farzhaa-yes, that had been it. But the senator had never shown up, and then Luke had sensed danger, and then-  
  
Luke suddenly went rigid with the memory. The Senate building. The floor and ceiling and walls had just seemed to erupt. What had happened? Was he in the collapsed rubble of the building? Had it been totally destroyed?  
  
Another thought stole the breath from his lungs. What about the other people-Farzhaa's secretary or the office aid in the corner? What about the people he had passed in the corridors or the turbolifts or the crews who had ushered him in on the docking platforms? He suddenly felt nauseated, and for a moment, thought he was going to throw up. Just how many people had been in the building?  
  
Blood pounding in his ears, making his aching head throb, Luke stretched out into the inky darkness straining for some evidence that someone else was still alive. His mind groped, fumbled through the piles and piles of stone and metal, his horror growing. He felt how many were dead, hundreds and hundreds of them, their presences silenced and darkened in the Force, buried with him in one massive, crushing tomb.  
  
But there were others who were still alive. Their pain and confusion reached out, groping, calling, pleading for his help. Their minds were suddenly a mass of chaos, pain and fear reaching for him, threatening to drag him under. *I can't help you*, Luke thought in despair, shutting his mind against the pleas.  
  
It was then that he did throw up, streaming bile in the darkness until there was nothing left, and still his stomach clenched into the miserable spasms of dry heaves, shooting pain through every broken bone in his body and turning his aching head into a mass of white-hot agony. *Dead, dead, dead,* the dark voices taunted at him. Luke clenched his eyes shut, trying to shut out the clamor of cries in his mind and feeling the welcome beckoning of unconsciousness come to take him again.  
  
As the darkness claimed him, another voice rose out of the dimming noise in his mind. *Luke!*  
  
He mouthed his wife's name, grasping onto the last tendrils of the call as he slipped away.  
  
********** 


	4. chapter 4

Author notes: I know that the ages of Han and Leia's children do not exactly coincide with the timeline here, but I decided to take a couple of liberties with my story. Hope you don't mind. Enjoy.  
  
Chapter four  
  
The Solo's kitchen was lit by a single light over the cooking surface and cast in the bluish nighttime glow of Coruscant at night. Mara, shivering as she wrapped her long robe closer around her body, sank into a chair, clutching a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. Staring blankly at the mug, she took a small sip and pursed her lips, brows furrowed. It wasn't as quite as good as Luke made it, but close.  
  
She checked her chrono and ran a hand through her unruly red-gold hair. She was not going to check for an update on the holovid-she'd promised herself. If Luke had been found, she would know-they would tell her. There was nothing that could be gained from listening to the grim predictions of the media spokespersons.  
  
Biting back sudden, inexplicable tears, she checked her chrono again, taking another bitter sip of the chocolate. She shut her eyes and reached for the inner calm that she would need to make this work. *Luke,* she thought to him again. *Where are you? Are you all right?*  
  
Again, she received no answer. She felt her baby kick instead. *It's okay,* she assured the tiny mind inside her, projecting as much comfort into that thought as she could. *It's okay. I'm just worried about your daddy. It's okay, little one.*  
  
Behind Mara, the kitchen door opened softly. "Couldn't sleep?" Leia's voice asked behind her. Mara turned, offering a watery smile.  
  
"It happened again. Did you feel it?"  
  
"Enough that it woke me up," Leia answered, sinking into the chair across from Mara. Her eyebrows were knitted together in faint concern. "That was all though."  
  
Mara shivered at the memory of the blackness sucking her in, the voices crying for her attention, the pain, the fear, and the darkness. "I- " she stammered, dropping her gaze to the table. "He was awake again."  
  
"Well, at least we know he's alive," Leia whispered. Mara nodded wordlessly, curling her suddenly icy fingers around the warmth of the mug. "Were you able to call him-talk to him?"  
  
Mara took another sip, staring at the swirls of chocolate in her drink. "No. He." she trailed off, looking up to see Leia watching her. "I mean.how long is it going to take for them to find him? It has been fifty-three hours since the bombing. You'd think they hurry now.while he's still alive."  
  
Leia shook her head, biting her lip. She was too involved in the situation to be reasonable if left in charge. The senate had known that. In a way, she felt grateful, and in other ways, she felt as if her hands had been tied when she suddenly needed them the most. "I've tried using every connection I have, and then some," she murmured. "They're looking as fast and furiously as they can. Twelve survivors so far-"  
  
Mara shook her head, running her hand through her hair again. "And he's alive. I just.want to go down there myself and try to find him."  
  
Leia said nothing. That thought had crossed her mind too, as the day before had worn on. Reports from the holovid and her personal comm. unit had blared into the crowded apartment, while the children spent most their day crying and fussing and the adults had been pacing. Friends had called almost perpetually throughout the day, questioning, offering condolences-even volunteering to bring over food. Chewie's pacing had been the worst of all. Leia knew that he felt the inability to do something as the worst torment of all. By the end of the day, the Wookiee was practically tearing the house apart in a rage of helplessness. She rubbed the corner of her eye and sighed inaudibly. "I don't know what else to do except try and wait it out."  
  
"Mommy?" a voice behind her called. Leia looked behind her to see little Anakin standing in the doorway, clutching his stuffed Ewok. She reached her arms out to him, and the boy came to her, burrowing his head in her shoulder.  
  
"What's the matter, sweetheart?" she asked, rubbing her son's back, watching Mara down the last of her hot chocolate. "Couldn't you sleep either?"  
  
"I had a bad dream about Uncle Luke."  
  
Leia caught Mara's eye as the other woman slowly get up from her chair and take her cup to the dishwasher, wrapping her robe tighter around her. The red-head pursed her lips, looking drained and emotionless.  
  
"I'm going to try and go back to sleep," she murmured, eyes flashing down to the small boy burrowed in his mother's shoulder and then back at Leia again. "Good night."  
  
**********  
  
Please review and tell me what you think so far.  
  
Later, T. 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter six  
  
******  
  
"You know Leia's going to kill me for doing this, don't you?" Han growled under his breath, pulling the airspeeder in sight of the demolished Senate building. "She is going to have my head."  
  
"Let me deal with that when it comes," Mara murmured, pressing her white fists together as she eyed the devastation. "This is for Luke--all that matters is that we get him out of there."  
  
"Hey, I'm not arguing. If I could, I'd be down there with my bare hands, trying to dig him out. If it weren't for those blasted bureaucrats-- but see, there's no guarantee that they're going to listen to us here, even." Solo gestured one-handed to the wreckage, and the government vehicles swarming around like flies to a carcass. The vague, translucent shimmer surrounding the area signified the presence of a force-field. "Think of all the other people that surely must have attempted this already."  
  
Mara shut her eyes and bit down on her bottom lip, reaching instinctively out to brush Luke's presence and again finding the frighteningly dark emptiness instead. "We have to try," she whispered.  
  
"Well, here goes nothing," Han muttered, toggling the comm. switch. "Command, this is KR-472, with an 810 Authorization Code. Requesting permission to enter."  
  
There was a rather lengthy silence. Han and Mara traded grim looks. Finally, a voice crackled over the speaker. "We hear you," a terse voice announced. "You have entered a secure area. State your name and your business."  
  
"This is Han Solo. I have authorization from the Chief of State. We.uh.need to talk to someone in charge."  
  
There was another pause. Solo glanced sidelong at Mara and saw that she was staring intently at the command station in front of them. Was she using some sort of mind trick on them? He hoped it was working.  
  
"Acknowledged, 472," the voice returned. "If you'll proceed along the prescribed route, you may enter the premises. Please follow the routes exactly, for your own safety. An agent will be waiting to meet you."  
  
"Okay," Solo nodded as he switched off the comm, feeling slightly more optimistic. He turned to Mara. "This might work."  
  
*****  
  
"My husband is down there!" Mara snapped to the passive Bothan standing in front of her, her red hair flying out of its loose braid. "It has been three, nearly four days and he is still down there--alive."  
  
The alien spread his hands, in a gesture that looked for all the world like he was trying to ward her off. Han wasn't a very good judge of Bothan body language. "Madame, this is a very emotional subject for you, I know, but we are working our hardest to find all the survivors--"  
  
Mara shook her head in frustration. "You're not listening. I know he is alive--we have to find him before it's too late."  
  
The Bothan made another unidentifiable gesture and stepped behind a cluttered desk, hitting a comm button. "I can understand your distress," he said to Mara again, flicking his gaze to Han as he spoke. Solo tried to keep his face expressionless, feeling suddenly as though they were on the losing side of this argument. "But you must not interfere with the work here--everything that can is being done."  
  
Mara opened her mouth again to snap off another retort when the door to the Bothan's office hissed open and a beefy alien of a species Han didn't recognize stepped in.  
  
The Bothan smiled thinly and took a seat behind his desk again. "Marko will show you out," he said pleasantly. "Have a good day."  
  
*******  
  
They returned to the Solo's apartment a few hours later and were greeted immediately by an angry, distraught Chewbacca. Han brushed past his copilot, shaking his head.  
  
"No dice. They weren't very cooperative--too busy and frantic to worry about one more person's problem, despite all the strings I pulled."  
  
The Wookiee howled in distress, barking his frustrated opinion.  
  
Han laughed humorlessly. "You and me both, pal." He stepped aside, watching as Mara brushed past him. She had been white-faced and silent the whole trip back, and now she sat, white-faced and silent in front of the holovid and just stared at it hopelessly, despairingly.  
  
"What's going on?" Leia asked, coming into the room. "Mara what's wrong?"  
  
Han walked, putting his hand over his face and groaning audibly. "We tried something and it didn't work."  
  
Chewie snapped off another angry remark. Han grunted.  
  
"What?" Leia asked. "What did you do?"  
  
"We tried to pull strings at command to make their dig go a little faster, but it didn't work too well."  
  
Leia glanced from Han to Mara and back again, opening her mouth and shutting it quickly. "And.."  
  
"There haven't been any survivors found in the last thirteen hours, so the odds aren't very good," Mara finished. "That's all they could tell us. They were in a hurry and wouldn't listen, assured us we'd be notified of any new developments and happily showed us to the door." She glanced up, looking tired and disheveled. "I guess that's all we can do, isn't it?"  
  
"Mistress Mara," Threepio piped up helpfully. "If I might be permitted to point out, your vital signs are--"  
  
"Save it, Threepio," Mara snapped at the droid with the last of the fire that remained of her temper after she had yelled at the head of Cleanup Operations back at the tower. "I really don't want to hear about it right now."  
  
Han raked a hand through his hair and sat down heavily on the sofa.  
  
Mara covered her face with her hands and apologized quickly. "I'm sorry for my temper," she murmured in a shaky voice. "Blame it on the hormones, I guess. Or Luke. Why would he leave his very pregnant wife at a time like this?" She looked up at them and tried to offer a smile that somehow didn't manage to make it to her eyes.  
  
"Mara, when was the last time you had a decent couple of hours of sleep?" Leia asked her sister-in-law.  
  
The red-haired woman shook her head. "You're right. Too long-- that's why I'm falling apart at the seams."  
  
"You need to think of your health as well as the baby's," Leia told her. "You should go to bed, try to rest."  
  
"But I can't-"  
  
"You're not doing yourself or anyone else any good unless you get some sleep." Leia cut her off, firmly. "If anyone calls about Luke, we'll wake you up immediately."  
  
********  
  
The call came in the middle of the night.  
  
Mara, jolted from a kaleidoscope of jumbled, frightening dreams, was suddenly awakened to the quiet of the darkened bedroom, wondering what had startled her.  
  
The quiet knock on the door repeated itself. "Mara?" Leia's voice asked quietly.  
  
Mara tried to work moisture into a dry mouth, rising up and fumbling for a light. The chrono on the nightstand read an hour after midnight.  
  
She'd dreamt about Luke again, accosted by the horrors she'd felt from him--the death and the darkness. She'd felt his despair at being alone and unable to do anything. She'd cried with him and clung to him in the suffocating, encroaching darkness, praying for an end.  
  
"Mara, are you awake?"  
  
Light flooded the room, hurting Mara's eyes. She licked her lips. "I--I'm here," she managed.  
  
The door opened, and a disheveled Leia stepped into the rose- colored light, dressed in a silken dressing gown, eyes feverishly bright. "They just called," she murmured. "They've pulled out a survivor that they've identified positively as Luke--he's still alive."  
  
Mara jolted forward, throwing the covers back and striking her feet against the thickly carpeted floor. "Where is he?" she gasped. "Is he okay?"  
  
"They admitted him to the Imperial med-center just over an hour ago," Leia answered. "Beyond that, they didn't say. How soon can you be ready to go?"  
  
Tying her robe with trembling hands, Mara replied, "just give me two minutes to get dressed."  
  
*************** ************** 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter seven  
  
************  
  
Mara shifted in the uncomfortable chair in the brightly lit waiting room, watching Solo pace a trail into the floor. Leia sat in the chair next to Mara, wincing at her husband's impatience.  
  
Mara eyed the holovid, blaring meaningless drivel into the room. Some sort of rehashed news story--possibly about Luke, even. But it was getting on her nerves. "Do you think we can turn that thing off?" she asked. "The noise is driving me crazy."  
  
Han interrupted his pacing, obviously grateful for something to do. Blessed silence prevailed. Mara sighed, shifting in her chair again, trying to redirect her attention to her datapad where the latest reports on shipping and trading scrolled up. One part of her logic told her to take this moment of free time to catch up on her work. Another part reminded her that her husband had been found, and after four days of not knowing where he was or if he was alive, she was so close to getting to see him again--this was not a time to try and catch up on trading statistics. She checked her watch for the fourth time in the last quarter hour. They'd been in this waiting room for nearly three hours. Her stomach volunteered a twinge that was perhaps to remind her she hadn't eaten since dinner, an eternity ago.  
  
Common sense said it was logical to try and get some sleep. There was no telling how long the surgery might go--probably until morning. At least she would have had some rest. But no. Even if she had wanted to, she couldn't have slept.  
  
Han sat down and turned the holovid back on, turning it to a smashball game that was well into the middle of noisy chaos. Leia and Mara traded a look. Mara couldn't decide if she preferred the silence or the fact that Solo was finally sitting down.  
  
"I'll tell you one thing," she murmured, grimacing as she shifted in the chair again. "Whoever designed these chairs did not do it with pregnant women in mind."  
  
She picked up her datapad again, casting an apprehensive glance at the empty silent doors. A doctor had emerged from them nearly two hours ago, informing them that Luke had immediately been taken into emergency surgery. He had counted off his fingers Luke's injuries the way someone might a list of chores they had to do: severe dehydration, blood loss, a broken leg, four broken ribs, a fractured arm, damage to his spinal chord, a moderate to severe head injury, and an artificial hand that was completely destroyed. They reminded her cautiously that it was a miracle that he had lasted as long as he had. However, the only words Mara remembered were "he should pull through." Those were the only ones that were important.  
  
Leia got to her feet, looking a little less than regal in her wrinkled jumpsuit and ruffled hair. "I think I'm going to get something to eat--do you want me to bring you anything?"  
  
Mara grimaced as her stomach twisted again. "No, I don't really think I'm up to it. Thanks though." The Chief of State nodded and was gone. Mara studied the generic, nondescript patterns of the carpet, following the designs absently with her eyes. She tapped her datapad against her knee, glancing at it periodically. The noise of the smashball game was giving her a headache--she'd never really understood the sport anyway.  
  
She focused on her datapad, repeating the figures to herself, forcing her attention on the reports. Not that it mattered terribly. She'd be off for maternity leave in a couple of weeks--surely Karrde had a couple people standing to replace her.  
  
The doors swung open. She glanced up quickly in spite of herself, only to see an Emdee droid emerge, pushing a cart. Disgusted at how tense and antsy she was, Mara glared again at her datapad. Her stomach wrenched again. She tried to recall exactly what she *ha*d eaten for dinner that would give her such indigestion. Blame it on Threepio's cooking skills.  
  
******  
  
Leia returned with a plate of limp, sorry-looking food, wondering if she was hungry enough to eat it. If not, she supposed she could convince Han to eat some.  
  
The waiting room was as she had left it: Han was still watching the smashball game and Mara was still sitting, fidgeting. Han turned toward her as she sat down next to him and placed the questionable plate of steaming food down on the small table. "I called Threepio," she told him. "Everything's fine--the kids are still asleep."  
  
Solo nodded. "Though I always question, with Goldenrod in charge." He gestured to the plate. "What is that?"  
  
Leia gave him an innocent look. "Food. Want some?"  
  
"No thanks--I ate yesterday."  
  
"Your loss," Leia murmured, taking a cautious bite.  
  
Han eyed the food dubiously. "I'll take my chances."  
  
"Well, at this point," Leia responded, trying not to show her distaste--more out of personal pride than anything else. "I'm not going to be too picky."  
  
Mara uncrossed her legs and looked up from her datapad. "You know," she announced suddenly, setting the small device down on the side table next to her. "I think I might be going into labor."  
  
Han and Leia both turned to look at her. "How's that again?" Solo asked, jolting up in his chair.  
  
"Labor," Mara repeated calmly, rising with an apologetic grimace to her feet. "Maybe we should find a doctor, because I think this baby's coming."  
  
*******  
  
Comments, Flames? I'd love to hear them all ;) 


	7. chapter 7

Thanks for your comments!  
  
***************  
  
Chapter Eight  
  
"You Skywalkers sure know how to time things," Han Solo remarked jovially as he entered Mara's hospital room, late morning. "You couldn't have done this one better if you planned it."  
  
"Trust me, we didn't," Mara assured him, shifting uncomfortably on the bed and giving the former smuggler a wry smile. "I think nature has more of a sense of irony than we realize."  
  
"I think you're probably right," Solo murmured, taking a chair and grinning widely. "Well, you're now the mother of a beautiful baby girl. I stood outside of the nursery and they held her up for me to see. She's healthy, beautiful--you deserve congratulations."  
  
Mara just smiled and shut her eyes. It had turned out to be a longer night than she had planned. "How does it feel to be an uncle?" she asked.  
  
Solo grinned again. "Almost as fun as being a father."  
  
Mara's serene smile faded. "Luke should have been here for the birth of his baby," she whispered, opening her eyes. "How is he doing?"  
  
Han clasped his hands together in front of him. "They just brought him out of surgery about twenty minutes ago--got him in the ICU. He seems like he weathered it pretty well, but they're watching him close, you know?"  
  
Mara nodded.  
  
"Got all these machines and equipment. He's got one arm and both legs splinted up in casts, because they said they wanted to wait on the bacta and bone-knitters until he's stronger. The good news is that he should have no permanent damage to his spinal cord."  
  
Mara nodded again. "That's good," she whispered.  
  
"Now you've got me and Leia jumping from the birthing wing to the ICU and back again," Solo joked lightly. "I'm going to know this hospital pretty good by the time we're done here."  
  
"I wish I could be with him," she murmured. "He'll need me when he wakes up."  
  
"Hey, you need to get your rest," Solo pointed out. "And he needs to get his rest. They said it could be a little while before he woke up."  
  
Mara only nodded again, too tired to really put up an argument.  
  
"Besides," Han murmured. "Leia and I are watching on him. He'll be okay. And as soon as he wakes up, we'll get you down there to be with him."  
  
Mara shut her eyes again. "Thank you," she said quietly. "I really appreciate everything."  
  
"Hey, don't mention it," Solo waved her thanks away. "Luke can just be in debt to me for the rest of his life, right?"  
  
Mara smiled faintly. "He'll be thrilled to hear that."  
  
Han grinned again. "I knew he would be."  
  
The door to Mara's room opened with an almost inaudible hiss and a too-one-bee droid entered, pushing a basinet.  
  
Solo sat up in surprise. "Well, look who's here," he grinned again.  
  
A smile spread across Mara's features as well. The droid gently set the sleeping baby in her arms. It was the first time Mara was able to get a good look at her. Han was right--she was beautiful. Tiny, perfectly proportioned features, peered out from the white hospital blanket, topped with a skullcap of soft, barely-visible hair. Mara held her, gently kissing the top of her daughter's head and memorizing the gentle smell and soft touch of the infant in her arms. She reflected silently that she could hold her baby for ever and never tire of it.  
  
"Have you and Luke decided on a name yet?" Han's voice cut into her thoughts.  
Mara looked up at the smuggler, shrugging slightly. "Luke and I discussed it a lot. But we haven't come up with anything definite yet. You'll have to let me know if you have any ideas."  
  
Solo nodded with another half-smile. "I'll try to give it some thought." He got to his feet, still smiling at them.  
  
"I'd better go, and let you two have a little time for yourselves. You'll let Leia and I know if you need anything, right?"  
  
"My comlink's right here," Mara nodded toward the nightstand. "But I'm sure we'll both be fine. Just keep me posted on how Luke is doing."  
  
"If anything happens, you'll be the first to know," Han promised.  
  
"Thank you again," Mara told him.  
  
"Hey-not a problem. That's what a family's for, right?"  
  
"Right," Mara nodded.  
  
"Catch you later," Solo grinned and then left the room.  
  
********************** 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter nine  
  
***************  
  
"Temporary," Leia repeated, adjusting her grip of the handles of Mara's repulsor chair and pushing it forward down the stark, sterile hospital corridor. "The doctors say it's just temporary." They rounded a corner, and Mara gripped the sides of chair tighter, feeling for all the world like the hall was spinning and she was going to fall out. "Though how much of his sight will return, they're unable to tell yet."  
  
"I.." Mara faltered. "Did they not know this before-that he wouldn't be able to see?" How, after everything that had happened..  
  
"They were aware that it was a possibility," Leia murmured. Her voice sounded dead to Mara's ears. "He received quite a blow to the back of the head--it affected the parts of the brain that control sight. They just couldn't know how bad it was going to be."  
  
*Why?* She wanted to cry. *Why all of this? Why now?* But she didn't say anything. Just clutched the arm of the chair and watched their approach to the wide door to Luke's room.  
  
"He's been worried for you," Leia was saying. "On account of the fact that the baby was born early. We've been assuring him you're both fine, but I don't think he'll stop worrying until he hears it from you."  
  
Mara nodded, stilling eyeing the door. Of course he would worry about her rather than himself. She was steeling herself to look and talk cheerful, and not let him in on the shock she felt on learning that this incident had, along with inflicting all its other injuries, left Luke blind.  
  
The door hissed open, and Leia pushed Mara's chair forward into the small, sunny room.  
  
"Luke?" Mara called to the figure lying on the large bed. Voices that were conversing in low tones stopped and Luke turned--or rather, rolled--his head in the direction of the sound of her voice.  
  
"Looks like she's here, kid," Han said, rising to his feet and flashing Mara and Leia a pained smile.  
  
Luke was propped up against a healthy pile of pillows, his head wrapped in a wide, white bandage. His blue eyes that lit up at the sound of her voice seemed not to look at her, but through her.  
  
"Mara," he whispered. His voice sounded dry and hoarse with disuse. His skin was a pasty, pallid shade of gray.  
  
Leia obligingly pushed Mara's chair up closer to Luke's bed. Mara grasped her husband's hand, tangling in his IV, feeling the unwitting wetness of tears on her cheeks. "You're okay," she whispered. "You're really okay."  
  
"Mara," he repeated her name, clutching her hand like she would disappear. "I'm so glad--I thought--"  
  
"We didn't know if you were dead or alive," she whispered. "I was so worried-we were all so worried."  
  
"Mara--I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you and the baby. I--"  
  
"It's okay, Luke." Mara laughed through her tears. "You're a father now. We have a baby girl--a perfectly beautiful and healthy baby girl. She's so tiny..so perfect."  
  
"Mara."  
  
She just shook her head, clutching Luke's hand in both of hers, then swiping in embarrassment at the tears.  
  
"Mara I'm so sorry about what happened--"  
  
"No, Luke--don't be sorry for this. None of it was your fault."  
  
"I missed you so much--I didn't.." he clutched her hand tighter.  
  
"I missed you too, Luke." His fingers felt cold. "You're safe now. The number of survivors.We were just so worried."  
  
"Mara," Luke repeated, his voice cracking with emotion. "You know I--I can't see you--or anything, Mara--I'm--"  
  
"I know, Luke," she whispered as her eyes blurred with a fresh wave of tears. "I know--they told me."  
  
"I didn't know--I mean I didn't want to--"  
  
"It's okay," she murmured, warming his cold hand between both of hers. "I'm here--we'll get through this, whatever it is. I'm here.."  
  
He nodded and leaned back into the pillows, still tightly clutching her hand.  
"I love you, Luke," Mara whispered. "We'll get through this."  
  
************************ *******************************  
  
Wie findest du..? 


	9. Chapter 9

The way I wrote this story makes it best if it's read all in one chunk from beginning to end. I'm sorry that it gets posted in sections and that chapters are small. Just so you know, it flows better if read all the way through. Okay. Enough blabbing. Enjoy.  
  
************ Chapter ten ***********  
  
"What color of hair does she have?" Luke asked, touching the soft skullcap of hair on his daughter's head. Gently, he held the three-day-old baby girl that his wife had set in his arms, imagining the tiny features that he could not see.  
  
"There's not enough there to tell," Mara laughed, stroking the baby's head. "Whatever color it is, it's fair."  
  
"But her eyes are blue, right?" He looked up to regard the dark, vague blur of his wife. He could feel Mara's smile.  
  
"All babies' eyes are blue when they're born," Mara murmured. "It takes a while to tell on that too."  
  
"Hello, little one," Luke whispered, looking down at the baby again. "Hello."  
  
"I think she likes you, Luke," Mara murmured. "She won't take her eyes off you."  
  
Luke smiled and didn't say anything, simply gazed with sightless blue eyes down at their baby. He had his left hand twined with Mara's as he rocked the infant in his right. "What did you name her, Mar?"  
  
Mara glanced up at the expression on her husband's face. "Well, I haven't named her yet," she answered. "It's something we both need to do together." She tilted her head. "I thought I should wait to hear an opinion from the great Jedi Master himself before making any rash decisions." She spoke lightly, referring to a private joke they'd always had, but winced in reaction when she saw, instead of a smile, a look of pain cross Luke's face.  
  
"Are you all right?" She asked quickly. "Is something wrong?"  
  
He shook his head, shoving aside the torrent of negative emotion that had erupted from him at her words. "I'm fine."  
  
The baby began to squirm and fuss. Luke instantly turned his attention to her, rocking and soothing her. "What should we name her?" he murmured.  
  
Mara didn't answer right away. She'd given the matter a lot of thought recently, but wasn't sure of what Luke had in mind. The Skywalker family seemed so awash in its family's history that it seemed almost fitting for them to name their daughter after someone influential in her or Luke's past. But she watched her husband cradling their newborn baby, realizing this was their first time together as a family, their first step into a new chapter in their lives. The past had haunted them enough. It was time for them to move forward.  
  
"Rose," Mara said quietly, squeezing Luke's hand and touching the baby's cheek. "I think we should name her Rose."  
  
Luke glanced up, perhaps sensing her entire train of thought that had led to that answer. "Rose?" he asked.  
  
Mara nodded. "It's a rare and exotic flower. I saw one once-many years ago, in the Emperor's court. It was beautiful."  
  
The Jedi glanced back down at the baby. She was asleep now, her tiny hand curled around his finger, her mouth making soft sucking noises. "Rose," he whispered. "Hello, Rose."  
  
************** 


	10. Chapter 10

****************** Chapter eleven *************  
  
"My eyesight's improving," Luke announced as the orderlies hoisted him, dressed in a dripping white hospital tunic, from the bacta tank and to the repulsor stretcher. "See?" he reached his hand out to his wife and touched the vague blur he could tell was her sleeve. "You're wearing dark green today."  
  
Mara tried to smile for him as the sonic dryers dried his clothes and the orderlies began pushing the gurney forward. Visibly, all that was left of Luke's injuries were white bandages on his legs and left arm. His concussion had healed and the damage to his spinal cord had been mostly repaired, although he wouldn't be permitted to walk for another week. The bone-knitters were to come in a day or so. After that, they could only wait and pray that his sight would continue to improve.  
  
The orderlies pushed Luke to his room, moved him to the bed and departed. Mara followed her husband in, taking a seat in the chair next to his bed. "How are you feeling today?" she asked.  
  
Luke's eyes followed the sound of her voice. "Much better," he murmured. "I spent the night in a healing trance--it helped."  
  
Mara nodded. She wanted to ask him if the trance had improved his eyesight at all, but didn't. The doctors had said they would just have to wait and see how much it would get better.  
  
"So, how are you holding up at home?" Luke asked. "Surviving?"  
  
Mara laughed softly. "Motherhood," she smiled, "the new frontier. Here's something the Emperor's training never prepared me for. You wouldn't think that such a small person could bring such chaos to a home, but they can."  
  
"Sounds like fun."  
  
"Yeah well, I can't wait till you get home," Mara told him. "Dirty diapers, mid-night feedings."  
  
"Well, at least I know I won't cease to be needed," Luke commented dryly.  
  
Mara took his hand and softly stroked his fingers. "Don't worry, honey," she said in a sweet voice. "You never have to worry about not being needed."  
  
Luke covered both their hands with his still-bandaged left one. "I love you, Mara," he whispered seriously.  
  
Mara looked up into her husband's eyes, noting with a hollow pain in her throat that he was staring just past her. She squeezed his hand. "I love you too, Luke. Don't ever scare me like that again."  
  
*I promise,* he told her silently, leaning forward to kiss her. Mara accepted, kissing him back, realizing only then how much she'd missed him.  
  
"Sir, it's time for your lunch," a bland, mechanical voice pulled them apart. Mara looked up, flashing annoyance at the too-onebee droid entering the room, bearing a metal tray of unrecognizable food.  
  
"My favorite part of the day," Luke murmured with sarcasm, leaning his head back against his pillows, eyes vaguely focused at the foot of the bed. "Lunch."  
  
Mara watched in silence as the droid wheeled forward. "Here you are, sir," it announced cheerily, placing the tray on a roll-away table and shoving it close.  
  
Luke turned his head toward Mara again and whispered conspiratorially, "Let's sneak out of here and have dinner at the Skydome. What do you say?"  
  
Mara grinned, eyeing the droid. "Why Luke, are you asking me out on a date?"  
  
He looked innocent. "Why not?" he asked. "We're alone, neither of us is doing anything tonight, and my sister's watching the baby."  
  
They began kissing again as the departing voice of the droid announced, "I'll leave you now, sir. Please call if you require assistance."  
  
They parted a few minutes later and Luke groped on his tray for a fork. "Are you hungry?"  
  
"Not really," Mara answered, eyeing the goop. "Whoops-you just put your hand in your creamed topatoes."  
  
"Help," Luke murmured. "Is there a napkin anywhere?"  
  
"Nope. Would you like me to call too-onebee to bring some?"  
  
"Spare me," he muttered, wiping his hand off on the edge of the tray and licking his fingers. He immediately made a face.  
  
"A downside to being blind," he announced. "You can't see what you're eating."  
  
"Um, in this case, I think that might be a good thing," Mara told him.  
  
"Ha, ha," Luke returned, pushing the tray away, leaning his head back against the pillows. "I'm serious about this Skydome idea."  
  
"Well, can I give you a raincheck?" Mara asked. "If nothing else, Leia would kill me if I let you out of here."  
  
"Good point," Luke conceded. "Another time, then."  
  
"Speaking of your sister," Mara remembered. "She helped the kids make you a card which I promised to deliver." She pulled it out sheepishly and handed it to him. "I almost forgot."  
  
Luke took the homemade creation, and ran his hands over the colorful paper, roughly glued and scribbled in shaky child's scrawl. "That's nice of them," he said quietly. "What does it say?"  
  
Mara peered over his shoulder and read, "'Dear Uncle Luke, we miss you. Get better soon. Jacen, Jaina and Anakin.'"  
  
"That's cute," Luke murmured, leaning his head back against the pillows and shutting his eyes. A somber mood had suddenly seemed to come over him. "Tell them thank you for me."  
  
"I will," Mara nodded, eyeing him. "They spent all morning working on it--I'm sure they'll be glad to hear you liked it." When he didn't answer, she took the card and stood it carefully on the nightstand, next to his bed. Looking back at him, she saw that his eyes were still shut. "You okay?" she asked quietly.  
  
Vacant blue eyes snapped open again, regarding her general direction. His expression didn't change. "Yeah, I'm fine."  
  
"You look tired."  
  
"I am, kind of."  
  
"Well, maybe I should leave so you can get some rest."  
  
"No," Luke raised his head, his hand reaching for her arm, as if to stop her. "Stay a little while. Please."  
  
Mara nodded quickly. "Of course. If you want me to," she whispered, eyeing his worn features and reaching out to him through the Force. Wordlessly, Luke accepted her mental touch.  
  
"I was wondering," Luke said quietly. "I mean.they're looking for him, right?"  
  
Mara drew back. "What?" she asked.  
  
"The person who bombed the Senate building," he answered, raising his head again. "Are they looking for him? Do they have any leads?"  
  
Mara stared at him, quiet warning bells going off in her mind. Something about Luke's question and the tone of his voice filled her with worry. There was so much they still had not told him about the bombing, so much that still wasn't good for him to know yet. She wasn't sure what she should answer.  
  
"You see," Luke went on. "General Rieekan was here earlier with a bunch of questions that I was not able to answer. He wouldn't answer very many of my questions either. And since I was put in charge of uncovering this terrorist cell before the bombing." he trailed off, staring vacantly at the wadded sheet in his hand. "I just wanted to make sure someone's looking for him."  
  
Mara pushed back her worry and took her husband's hand, her heart aching for the sudden expression of helplessness shining in his eyes. "Yes, Luke," she said quietly. "They are looking for him. They're doing everything they can."  
  
He lay his head back against the pillow and shut his eyes again, seemingly satisfied. He didn't say anything else.  
  
Mara was silent for several long minutes, watching Luke's breathing slow until, finally, she decided, he was asleep.  
  
"Good night, Luke," she whispered, leaning forward and giving him a kiss on the forehead. "I love you."  
  
*************************  
  
Questions, comments, concerns? ( 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter twelve  
  
********** **************  
  
Luke came home a week-and-a-half later. By that time Mara and Rose had worked out a mutual routine that had included baths, meals, regular naps, and a couple of hours of work on Karrde's shipment reports.  
  
Remarkably, he came home with nothing more than a cane. The bone- knitters had done their jobs, and his broken bones had healed pretty well. His vision seemed to be another matter, though. In spite of a second opinion, bacta treatments and half-a-dozen healing trances, there had not been any improvement. Luke was able to see lights and very bright or dark colors, but nothing else. Mara secretly feared his eyesight would not get any better, but kept her doubts to herself. Luke had been strangely unwilling to talk about any of it. She didn't want to upset him any more than he already seemed to be.  
  
"Han and Leia are having a welcome-home dinner at their house tonight," she told Luke's retreating back as he shuffled into their bedroom. "It's just a family thing. The kids are excited to see you."  
  
She walked into Rose's room and laid the sleeping baby gently in her crib. "Are you hungry?" she asked him. "Do you want lunch?"  
  
"Sure," murmured his voice from the other room.  
  
"What do you want to eat?" Walking into the bedroom, she found Luke sitting on the edge of their bed, staring blankly at the floor. He looked up at the sound of her voice, giving her a belated smile.  
  
"I'm sure anything will taste better than med-center food."  
  
Mara made a face. "Is that complimenting or insulting my cooking?"  
  
Luke grinned at the carpet. "Complimenting, of course."  
  
Mara sat down next to him on the bed, slipping her hand into his. "Well I would hope so, Skywalker, considering the fact that I--"  
  
She was interrupted by the shrill and insistent beeping from Artoo- detoo down the hall.  
  
Mara sighed in exasperation. "Great--what does he want now? He's going to wake up the baby again."  
  
"Call on the comm.," Luke answered, twisting his hand away from Mara's. "I can get it."  
  
"No, I'll get it," Mara growled, rising to her feet. "Find out who it is, and maybe figure out how to program that bucket of bolts to shut up for once."  
  
"Good luck on the latter," Luke's amused voice called after her.  
  
Artoo clamored at her heels like a small, domestic, yapping animal, as Mara made her way to the comm. unit. "Okay, thanks, I've got it."  
  
The little droid continued to whistle up a blue streak. Mara pointed in exasperation to the hallway. "I don't know what you want. Go talk to Luke--he's the one that can understand you."  
  
She brushed her red-gold hair back behind her ears and pulled up the screen. General Rieekan appeared, dressed in a neatly pressed khaki uniform, hands folded on his desk, graying hair combed neatly back.  
  
"Good afternoon, Mara," he greeted her.  
  
"General," Mara smiled, nodding.  
  
"I was wondering if I might be able to speak to Luke--he is home now, isn't he?"  
  
Mara nodded, feeling a flash of irritation that they couldn't just give him the courtesy of letting him alone for a couple of days to rest and recover before clamoring for his attention again. "Yeah, we actually just walked in a few minutes ago. Just a minute--I'll get him."  
  
"Luke," she walked down the hall again. "The news has already spread that you're back--General Riekan's on the comm for you. Luke--"  
  
She entered the room to find him stretched out on the bed, fast asleep. Artoo stood next to his master, dome spinning back and forth indecisively.  
  
She sighed, remembering their trek through Myrkr's forest. He had an uncanny ability to drop off at any time, in any situation. "Luke," she nudged his shoulder. "Wake up. Luke--"  
  
With a start, his eyes snapped open. "Wha--"  
  
"Luke, General Rieekan is waiting on the comm. for you."  
  
Wordlessly, he sat up, groping for his cane. Artoo rolled forward and beeped something. Luke waved him away, rising unsteadily to his feet and shuffling toward the door. The little droid followed.  
  
Mara sighed, glancing around the room, trying to dispel her irritation. She spotted a pile of reports and a datapad that were sitting on the nightstand where she'd left them the night before.  
  
Seated at the computer in the small office a few minutes later, papers and datacards sprawling, she listened with half an ear to Luke's conversation with Riekan in the kitchen. The voices were low enough that she couldn't hear what was being said, but there was something about Luke's sense that made her uneasy. It was a feeling she couldn't really identify, and so dismissed it for the time being, concentrating on her work instead.  
  
"What did Riekan want?" she asked as Luke came into the office a few minutes later.  
  
He shrugged, gazing in her general direction. "Just for me to meet with him tomorrow morning."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Mara?"  
  
She looked up, scrutinizing his unreadable expression and the sense through the Force that came with it. "Yes?"  
  
"Do you think we can postpone this dinner with Han, Leia, and the kids? Maybe until next week?"  
  
"I--" Mara spread her empty hands. "Sure. I can call her and tell her."  
  
"Okay, thanks," he turned to leave, bumping into Artoo and catching his hand on the blue dome. "I think I'm going to try to take a nap."  
  
********************* *********************  
  
comments, comments, da ta-da ta-da da.. 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter thirteen ************************  
  
"Come in, Luke, come in," General Riekan ushered the Jedi into his office the next day. Luke tried not to lean very heavily on his cane as he smiled at the dark blur of the other man, shaking his hand. Artoo trailed behind. Absently, Luke let his hand fall to the domed droid for support. "I'm glad you could come in this morning," the general was saying, moving to his desk and taking a seat. "We have a lot to discuss."  
  
Luke tried not to look too obvious as he groped for the edge of a chair and sank into it. "To start, there have been a lot of new developments since the bombing. Intelligence has been humming with contacts, and information. It might take you a couple days for you to get filled in on all these new developments."  
  
Luke frowned. "You mean.I still have my assignment?"  
  
Riekan paused. "Well, of course. They kept it for you. That is, if you're up to it, and would still like to have it."  
  
Luke spread his hands. "Well, of course. But I just thought you called me here to relieve me of my appointment."  
  
"Rather, a debriefing," Riekan corrected. "We still need your help and skills. Now, you had enlisted the unofficial help of Senator Farzhaa, is that correct?"  
  
Luke winced inwardly. "Yes, but since the bombing--I don't even know if he--"  
  
"There is a lot of information to cover. But frankly, I will tell you right now, Farzhaa is being detained under suspicion of association with terrorist activities. He cannot be trusted."  
  
Shock and guilt flooded through Luke. He opened his mouth and closed it again. Farzhaa associated with the bombing? How had he not known this? He'd blindly trusted someone who turned out to be the enemy? "I.I had no idea," he managed.  
  
"Don't take it too personally," Riekan said quietly. "This news was a shock to everyone. It was almost by pure happenstance that someone bothered to check into it at all. But now that we have him, he may tell us some useful information. Perhaps more than we realize at this point," he added darkly.  
  
Luke was silent, his thoughts unwittingly flying to the dark memories of rubble, darkness, and pain. Could all of that death and destruction been avoided if had just paid more attention? If he had relied more on the Force, might he have been able to.  
  
"Do you have a datapad with you or something?" Riekan's question cut into his thoughts. "We have a lot of information to cover."  
  
"I--" Luke gestured to Artoo. "He's taking notes for me today." The droid beeped politely and Luke patted its domed head, feeling Riekan's eyes on him. He wondered how much everyone actually knew about his being blind. Maybe he was doing a convincing job of looking like he could see. Maybe not.  
  
But the general just shuffled papers and did not comment. "Then let's get started, shall we?"  
  
Luke nodded, sitting back in his chair, focusing attentively on the dark blur in front of him and digging his fingernails into the plastene grip of his cane. 


	13. chapter 14

Chapter fourteen  
  
"Uncle Luke!" the children's voices cried as the door to the Solo's apartment opened. The Jedi was nearly bowled over by the three Solo children.  
"Hey guys—at least let them get through the door," Han said, coming up behind them and shooing them back. "Careful," he quickly admonished Jacen who was clinging to his uncle, "or you'll have Uncle Luke on his back again. Hey kid, come in," he greeted his friend, clapping the younger man on the back and ushering him and Mara in.  
"You made it," Leia exclaimed, coming to give her brother and sister-in-law a hug. She peered at baby Rose. "I'm glad you're here—and on time too, Luke. I'm so impressed." She gave the Jedi a knowing smile, referring to Luke's propensity for tardiness, a trait to which she attributed to Han's bad influence.  
Luke smiled stiffly. "We set our chronos ahead, just for the occasion," he answered, smiling just past her at the far wall. "Thanks for inviting us, by the way."  
Leia just laughed. "We did it as much for our sanity. The kids have been dancing around for three days in anticipation of your coming." She gestured towards the living room. "But why don't you come in and sit down? Then we can talk."  
  
"Goldenrod, if you spill that drink on me, you're fired," Han growled. Threepio, moving toward the long dining room table with a stiff, mechanical stagger, was holding a tray of beverages precariously aloft. Solo lifted his own drink out of the way of the droid's flailing arm and gave him a menacing look.  
"Oh dear," Threepio murmured fretfully. "I am sorry, Captain Solo. I am just trying to—"  
"Just don't spill on me."  
"Yes sir. I—Master Luke, would you like a drink?"  
Luke, seated next to Han, didn't do a very good job at concealing a smile. "Sure," he replied, reaching up, his hand fumbling briefly to find the goblet. "Thanks, Threepio."  
"Why, you're perfectly welcome, Master Luke—"  
"So what kind of news does Rieekan and his goonies have on this guy anyway?" Han interrupted the droid, gesturing with his fork. "Just how close are they?"  
Luke grimaced slightly, cutting carefully at his meat with his knife. "I'm not really allowed to discuss it."  
"Surely there must be something you can tell us about some of the suspects. What about Farzhaa, for example?"  
Luke straightened in his chair, tossing a vague, sidelong glance at the other. "Really. I...don't know anything about Farzhaa beyond the fact that he is being held under suspicion. I...just don't really want to talk about it right now."  
Solo shrugged, glancing at Leia. She shook her head ever so slightly, brown eyes warning him to back off. "Okay. Sure, kid," he muttered, focusing on his dinner, stirring his salad with his fork. "You don't have to get your back up about it."  
Luke pursed his lips and wordlessly took another small bite of food. Mara's green eyes flashed to her husband and down again.  
"Mommy?" Anakin asked, diverting the attention from the sudden silence as he slid down from his chair. "I'm done eating. Can I go play now?"  
Leia dabbed the corner of her mouth with her napkin and took a small sip of her drink. "Yes, but first go into the kitchen and let Threepio wipe your face off. You have sauce all over your chin."  
Threepio looked up at the summons, and with an air of apprehension, led the little boy, bouncing behind him, into the kitchen.  
Luke set his napkin next to his plate and pushed his chair back from the table. "Excuse me for just a few minutes," he murmured, catching his hand against the high back of the chair as he walked toward the door.  
Leia took another sip of her drink, gazing pensively after her brother's departure. "He's changed," she said quietly. "Something's really bothering him."  
Mara only nodded. "I know."  
The Chief of State focused on her sister-in-law. "Has he talked about it, said anything?"  
She stared at her plate, stirring the salad around with her fork. "No, nothing. I think he doesn't want to worry me," she shrugged slowly. "His assignment keeps him up nights, researching, gathering information. It's a big job. He doesn't really like to discuss it."  
"Which is only natural," Leia agreed, eyeing the door again. "I'm sure, given a little bit of time, he'll be his old self again."  
Wordlessly, Mara nodded. 


	14. Chapter 15

When I said short, I was very serious......  
  
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Mara had quickly grown accustomed to the sporadic sleep schedule that accompanied a newborn baby. So it was with a tired sense of routine that she awoke to Rose's cries from the other room and slapped the bedside lamp, sliding her legs over the side of the bed.  
"I'll get her, Mar," Luke told her, already on his feet, brushing his hand against the wall and shuffling barefoot into the hallway.  
He returned a few moments later, Rose on his shoulder, kissing the top of the baby's head, before handing her to Mara. "It must be time for her midnight snack."  
"It must be," Mara agreed, smiling at her daughter. She eyed Luke as he climbed back into bed, seeing that his features looked flushed, his face beaded with perspiration. "Are you all right?" she asked quietly.  
He nodded, pulling the covers up to his chin and offering a weak smile. "Just a nightmare," he murmured. "I'm fine."  
Mara didn't answer, glancing down at Rose as she ate, brushing the baby's soft hair with the back of her hand. Luke had at least one nightmare every night. She knew when he did, for he'd get up and pace the floors, stand at the balcony and stare at the Coruscant night with a mug of hot chocolate in his hands, or shut himself up in the office, going through one pile of data disks after another in an exhaustive search for information on the Senate Building bomber, the bland voice of the computer faintly audible through the walls of their room. A couple of times, the dreams had been so bad, Mara had had to shake him, gasping and sobbing, to wakefulness.  
She glanced at Luke. He looked like he was asleep, back turned to her, his breathing slow. But she knew he wasn't. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked quietly.  
Luke rolled onto his back, eyes staring up at the ceiling. "No." He brushed sweat-drenched hair off his forward and rubbed tiredly at the corner of his eye. "It's just stress. That's all. It will go away as soon as..." he trailed off, lips pressing together in a faint grimace. "As soon as we get this guy into custody."  
Mara tucked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear, shifting slightly against the pillows and didn't answer. It was more than just stress. She knew that. She'd seen the subtle changes in him ever since the bombing—the way he tensed every time they took the turbolift or whenever they could hear the ominous thrum of the underground freighters. When there was a holovid on the subject of the bombing or if someone discussed it, she would see his hands clench into fists and sense a frightening sort of helpless anger from him that she had never felt before. He had become jumpy and claustrophobic. Three days earlier, when visiting the Solos, Luke had been playing with the children. They had piled on him and wrestled him to the ground as they usually did when Luke came to visit. But the moment a small throw pillow covered his face, Luke panicked, fear and terror jolting through his sense as he jerked to a sitting position with a cry, gasping for air.  
Mara eyed him again, seeing in his features the strain of the last few weeks. His eyes were shut. _When are you going to talk to me about it?_ She wondered silently. _When are you going to let this go?_  
He didn't stir—looked as though he was genuinely sleeping. Mara hoped for his sake that he was. She glanced down again at Rose and saw that she was asleep as well. Giving the infant another soft kiss, she moved to put her back to bed. 


	15. Chapter 16

Chapter sixteen

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"I thought you didn't want to talk about this," Han muttered to Luke, zipping up his parka one-handed and eyeing his friend out of the corner of his eye. His souped up Modbel speeder lurched forward in a stomach-wrenching drop, down past thin, spiny towers to the seldom-seen Coruscant ground. Two kilometers ahead of them lay the massive drab structures that constituted one of Coruscant's main shipping transfer facilities. How Han managed to land a task like overseeing Customs was really beyond his comprehension. Fortunately, it would only be a temporary position. It was actually Luke's day off, but Solo knew the kid took days off like Leia took days off—meaning he didn't. Han figured he was doing his favor by hauling him off to be part of a bored inspection crew at TransOne.  
"I'm not talking about it," Luke argued in irritation. "Just mentioning the fact that Page has a name—Jarold Kraust."  
"So he's your bomber, huh." Solo gazed darkly down at the rushing scenery, and the florescent guiding landing lights. "You got a face to go with that name?"  
The Jedi shook his head. "Not that it does me any good, but yes, they have his holo."  
Solo glanced at his friend out of the corner of his eye again as he set the speeder down. Luke's manner seemed apprehensive and troubled. "You've gotta take it easy, kid," he said quietly. "Don't let this get to you so much."  
Luke nodded wearily, undoing his restraints. "I know—sorry. We weren't going to talk about this today."  
Solo keyed open his door. "That's right."  
They climbed out of the speeder. The Coruscant air was chilly. Han zipped his parka up to his chin. "Let's make this quick."  
Luke followed Solo, his eyes tracking the dark blur in front of him. The holding facility was crowded and noisy, packed with people and aliens, smelling of acrid sweat and cheap perfumes. "Exactly what do you want me to do here, anyway?" he asked, following his friend, his senses straining to get a mental image of his surroundings.  
Luke could sense Solo's shrug. "There's not a whole lot to it, kid. You'll figure it out pretty quick—and hopefully we won't be here too long. We're just overseeing." His dark form stopped and Luke almost ran into him. "There's Jaico now."  
Automatically, Luke's mind stretched out to the person or alien who was coming toward him. He touched the other's sense and was suddenly jolted into a kaleidoscope sea of darkness.  
Han's voice, still speaking, faded away. Luke suddenly saw himself on the afternoon of the Senate building bombing, stepping out of the turbolift on his designated floor. The corridors were quiet and almost empty. But as he exited the lift, he passed two humans and an Ithorian waiting patiently to board. The second man was a few inches shorter than average height with cropped dark hair. He was wearing a dark gray military- type jacket and carrying a metal file-case. He passed Luke, glancing up at the Jedi with a flash of sinister eyes. Then he disappeared into the lift.  
Luke physically gasped as memory flooded in on him. He had spent useless hours over the past weeks, going back through his memory of that day and the days before, retracing his footsteps, his surroundings, and the people that he might have seen or encountered. But he had not remembered this until now.  
"Luke?" Han's alarmed voice seemed to echo in the middle of his head. The Jedi could feel his friend's eyes on him. "Kid—is something wrong?" But Luke wouldn't have been able to answer if he had thought to. His sightless eyes were focused ahead of him—on the man Solo had just called Jaico. He was standing there, cropped hair covered in an olive green beret, beady black eyes staring back at Luke with perfect recognition.  
"Jarold Kraust," Luke whispered, still staring.  
"Kid—what—" Solo glanced around as if to catch the Senate building bomber dropping in on him from the sky.  
With that, Jaico bolted.  
"Don't let him get away!"  
But the man was small and fast, dodging between people and equipment, disappearing quickly into the crowd. Luke could not see him, but followed his sense, tracked him scurrying to the lower docking port.  
Luke was already running back the way they had come, senses straining. "He's heading for a speeder—we can cut him off."  
Han was following, sputtering, "_He's_ the bomber!?"  
Luke had reached the speeder several paces before his friend, and vaulted over the pilot's side. "I'll explain later—hurry!" Solo had barely dived in before the Modbel was off the ground. The smuggler was glancing breathlessly out the viewport and then over at the Jedi.  
"Can you see well enough to drive this thing?"  
"Fine," Luke lied, staring straight ahead at the milky cotton of his vision, and trying to compensate by tracking his surroundings with the Force. He increased their speed, knowing that they were gaining on Kraus. "Just tell me if we're about to run into something big."  
"Okay, pal, that's real encouraging—you'd better let me drive—"  
"No—"Luke wrenched the controls away, shaking his head, a small part of his mind registering the icy thrill tingling up his spine at being so close to the man they'd been searching for. "We'll lose him." He jerked the speeder into a stomach-sinking drop, barely missing a turret protruding into their path. He almost hadn't sensed it. Solo cursed loudly and colorfully.  
"Kid—you're out of your mind—"  
"Do you see him?" Luke cut him off, feeling the cold perspiration stand out on his forehead. "Straight ahead?"  
"In the Mobquet?"  
"That must be him." Luke hit the forward thrusters.  
"Luke—watch out—!"  
Barely in time, Han yanked hard on the controls, spinning them out of the way of colliding headlong with an oncoming freighter boat.  
"Call Paige to get out here code seven," Luke gasped, eyes still intent on the viewport. "We've found him—we can't lose him."  
Solo took his comlink, glancing at their forward trajectory, the mobquet and then at Luke. "Hello, Paige?—Luke watch out—yeah we have a code seven here. We're following your bomber."  
In a burst of speed, the Mobquet lurched forward and dived around a corner, disappearing from sight. "Our location is bearing 93628—he's getting ahead of us."  
Luke hit the accelerator, a determined expression on his face. Suddenly, another slow-moving freighter tub pulled into their path. "Kid—you're gonna hit it!" Han reached over to jerk the controls again. The side of the speeder struck the freighter with horrible screech of metal against metal, sending the Modbel spinning off under a shower of sparks.  
They spun to a halt, frozen for a moment in the realization that they were still alive. Luke still stared ahead for a moment, white knuckles still gripping the controls. He shut his eyes briefly and whispered. "I lost him."  
Solo heaved a breath, hearing his heart pound in his ears, glancing sidelong again at his friend. "That," he said sternly, "is the last time you ever get your hands on my speeder." He undid his restraints. "Now trade me places and let's get out of here—Paige's commandos have our coordinates. They can manage the rest."

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	16. chapter 17

That ought to hold them for a while...... :) Comments are treasured. T.  
  
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Chapter Seventeen

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"Luke, we've found him."  
Luke was sitting in a chair across from the holovid, knowing Rieekan was watching him for a reaction. But the Jedi felt too weary to react. He just nodded and smiled. "I'm...glad to hear that, sir."  
"He was caught trying to board a transport near Monarai city and arrested immediately," Rieekan informed him.  
Luke nodded, wishing he felt some measure of relief or satisfaction from hearing this news. But it was late in the evening of a long, draining day and he only felt numbness and the hollow wish for revenge. _Revenge is of the dark side_, he reminded himself tiredly.  
"It must be good to finally see something pay off from all this work," Rieekan went on.  
Luke nodded again. "Has he spoken—confessed to anything?"  
"No, not yet. However, we have hopes that he will start speaking soon." He paused, gauging Luke again. "You see, he has expressed a wish to meet with you."  
Luke's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Me?" he echoed. "Why?"  
He could sense Rieekan's faint shrug. "Perhaps because you were the one who recognized him. We're hoping it will make him open up, start talking. Will you meet with him, Luke?"  
Luke's thoughts flashed briefly, and his palms were suddenly very clammy. He didn't exactly want to meet with Jarold Kraust. "If you think doing so will get him to talk," Luke said out loud. "Then I'll do it."  
Again, Rieekan nodded. "Thank you. We can arrange for you to meet on the high security level of the detention center tomorrow afternoon."  
"Tomorrow afternoon," Luke repeated. "I'll be there." He managed a smile and then reached a shaking hand to sign off.  
There was a soft step behind him. His wife stood behind him. "Will meeting him face to face help to rid him from your nightmares?" Mara's voice asked quietly.  
He glanced up toward her. "I have to do this," he whispered. "It might help."  
"Them or you?" she asked, sitting down beside him.  
Luke dropped his gaze. "Maybe neither," he whispered. "But I have to try."  
Mara nodded, placing her hand on his. "I'm coming with you," she told him.  
He shook his head, looking up at her, wishing sadly that he could really see her face. "You don't need to do that, Mar."  
"But I'm going to do it anyway."  
Luke hunched his shoulders and took her hand in both of his, simply nodding. He was too tired to argue, and wasn't really sure he should anyway. Secretly he would welcome her steadying presence at his side. "Thank you."  
"Your hands are cold," she whispered, rubbing them. He could feel Mara's smile in the darkness. She leaned forward and buried her head in his shoulder, her arms going around his ribcage and sending a tingle of warmth through him. He gently folded her in his arms, stroking overflowing handfuls of thick, red-gold hair off her shoulders and away from her face.  
"I love you," he murmured.  
"Ditto to that," she whispered, tilting her head and accepting his proffered kiss. Then they parted and sat in silence in each other's arms for a long time.

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	17. Chapter 18

Clears throat loudly. comments are very much appreciated. Believe it or not , they really do motivate me to write more. It may be horrible, but I confess—I derive my motivation to work from other people's criticism and encouragement, or attention, if you will. But for everyone who's still reading, I hope you enjoy. And everyone that has reviewed--thanks and here's some more for ya! Believe it or not, this story is almost finished too. I'm just finishing stories all over the place—what are we going to do?  
  
T.

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Chapter Eighteen  
  
The detention level was a low-level buzz of noise and activity. Luke strode silently down the carpeted corridor behind the dark blur of the young office aide who was leading the way. Mara was just behind him, the warmth of her presence lighting the dark, apprehensiveness of his soul.  
  
As they walked closer to Kraust's detention cell, Luke's heart raced faster and faster, thudding in his ears. He was shaky and on edge as if he'd had no sleep the night before. Well, maybe that was partially true. Mara had shaken him out of two nightmares that night. Luke had woken both times, hoarse and drenched in a cold sweat. His wife had calmly and soothingly rubbed his shoulders, listened patiently to his rambling apologies and got up with him to make him some soup when Luke finally couldn't sleep. Poor Mara had to be just as exhausted as Luke and yet she was here with him. Luke silently blessed his beautiful wife. There were not words for him to begin to express how he loved her.  
  
They stopped at a security door and the guard swiped the aide's card. The door hissed open with a swish of silent repulsors. "Kraust is in one of our top-security detention cells," the aide informed Luke as if in explanation for the security checkpoints. "You understand, of course."  
  
Luke just nodded.  
  
"Luke—Mara," a voice that the Jedi recognized well as General Rieekan's called to them. "It's good to see you." The dark blur of the General's silhouette approached them and grasped Luke's hand in a firm handshake.  
  
"General," Mara smiled politely as Rieekan shook her hand.  
  
"Kraust is this way," Rieekan gestured.  
  
"Has he said anything?" Luke asked. "Confessed to any of it?"  
  
The General shook his head. "No—he's only demanded to see you about four times now. We're hoping...." Luke sensed the other man's faint grimace "...that he'll open up to you."  
  
"What does he want to talk about?"  
  
Mara eyed her husband, a shiver of worry going up her spine at his dark tone.  
  
"Hopefully a confession of sorts," Rieekan answered, his tone sounding neutral. "Whatever happens, it will all be recorded—so if he slips up, we'll nab him."  
  
Luke didn't answer. Mara eyed him, pushing down the apprehension she felt in the back of her mind. She felt troubled that they would request this of him, even though she knew Luke would do his duty to the Republic and acquiesce to their wishes.  
  
They stopped in front of a door which hissed open at their approach. Inside was a small observation room. There was a long window at one wall, looking into a narrow, steel cell. The room had two vid-ports, a console, and several empty chairs. A lieutenant, sitting at the console, looked up and removed his headphones when they arrived.  
  
Rieekan motioned them in.  
  
Mara stepped cautiously forward, just behind Luke. Through the window looking into the cell, she could see a narrow gray cot. On that cot, dressed in the aqua-blue jumpsuit of a high-security prisoner, his back facing them, sat Jerauld Kraust.  
  
Just the sight of him made Mara's body tense and her face flush hot. It would be easy to hate this man for everything he had done—to her husband and their family. But she forced herself to reach for calm. She felt Luke do the same, and glanced sidelong at him. Her husband was gazing straight ahead, his stony expression unreadable.  
  
"Mara, would you care to take a seat?" Rieekan was offering her a chair, even as the aide, his datapad in hand, was situating himself in the corner.  
  
Two guards stood at full attention at the entrance to the cell, their long rifles slung over their shoulders. Luke glanced towards them, and then cast his eyes vaguely about the room, as if taking in his surroundings as well as he could.  
  
Mara sent a thought of reassurance to him, even as Rieekan was ordering one of the guards to punch in the code that would open the cell door. Luke flashed a faint smile of thanks in her direction before stepping into Kraust's cell.  
  
"I want to talk to Skywalker alone," Kraust growled to Rieekan as the newcomers entered. His voice was miked into the small observation room, gravelly and angry. "You and your guards leave."  
  
Through the observation window, Mara saw the General purse his lips. "I'll leave," he replied calmly, "but the guards will stay—for Master Skywalker's protection."  
  
Kraust growled something inaudible as Rieekan ducked back out of the cell, the door behind him hissing shut. Through the long window, Mara watched as Luke stepped into view. She studied him briefly; his hair was combed neatly, his Jedi robe unwrinkled, the hood pushed back, his eyes that had seen the pain of many lifetimes. He gazed down at Kraust and did not say a word.  
  
The prisoner peered contemptuously up at the Jedi. "So nice of you to pay me a visit," he sneered. "I feel honored."  
  
A muscle in Luke's cheek twitched. "What is it you want to talk to me about, Kraust?"  
  
"Wouldn't you just love to know," the man spat. "You think you're going to make me slip by talking."  
  
Luke shook his head. "I don't need to try and make you slip. I already know you were the bomber."  
  
"Oh yes—Jedi intuition always comes in so handy, doesn't it?"  
  
"It doesn't hurt," Luke replied calmly.  
  
Kraust laughed scornfully, shifting on his cot to lean against the wall. His hands were cuffed in front of him, grubby fingers wadding what appeared to be a piece of paper in his hands. "You can't see me," he grinned mirthlessly, "can you, Skywalker?"  
  
Luke's expression didn't change. But his sense in the Force did. Mara watched tensely from the observation room, the warning of danger an ache beneath her collar bone. Luke was becoming angry. And this time he didn't seem to care about pushing the darkness away from him. Rieekan still stood wordlessly behind her.  
  
"What do you want, Kraust?" Luke asked tersely. "You wanted to meet with me, and now I'm here. If you don't hurry, I will leave, and your window of opportunity will be gone. So have your say—whatever you wanted to talk to me for. I'm here."  
  
Mara glanced at Rieekan again. "This is accomplishing nothing," she muttered.  
  
The general checked his chrono, his expression tight. "Give him two more minutes," he replied.  
  
"I only wanted to have a nice friendly talk about being in the wrong places at the wrong time," Kraust replied evenly to Luke, his mocking voice scratchy over the speaker.  
  
Mara stood up, her heart pounding. Rieekan glanced sharply in her direction, but she barely noticed. "The two minutes are up," she whispered, swallowing the lump in her throat. She glanced at Rieekan. "This isn't working," she repeated. But Kraust was talking and Rieekan was giving her a quick, distracted, reassuring smile. _In a minute_.  
  
"I want to tell you that maybe you shouldn't go sticking your nose where it doesn't belong and you wouldn't get hurt," Kraust was saying. "Maybe if you'd minded your own business you wouldn't now be blind and crippled and the thousands of people who died in the Senate building bombing wouldn't be—"  
  
He wasn't allowed to finish his sentence.  
  
Luke suddenly snapped. He had moved with the fluidity of years of training and experience—so quickly that Mara had missed it. But he was suddenly across the cell, his features tight with rage, his hands effortlessly strangling the life out of Jerald Kraust.  
  
"Luke—no!" Mara cried, rushing to the cell window. Very real fear clutched her heart. She knew that Luke was angry enough to kill this man. And she knew doing so might cost him his very soul. "Rieekan, get him out of there!"  
  
The guards were sluggish to move at first, hesitant to pull Luke off of Kraust. Mara knew that there was not one single person present that would not secretly approve of Luke killing the Senate building bomber right then and there. It was nothing less than the man deserved. But it couldn't happen.  
  
Rieekan keyed open the cell door, realizing belatedly what was happening. "Luke!"  
The guards had hold of his arms and one was trying to pry the Jedi's iron grip from Kraust's throat. It was a futile effort. Kraust's eyes were bulging from his head; his face was purple. Luke really was going to kill him. "Luke, stop!"  
  
The Jedi didn't act as though he heard or cared.  
  
Trembling, Mara palmed her blaster and set it to stun. Luke's mind was a sea of dark turmoil. He wasn't listening to her. Taking quick, careful aim, she reminded herself that Luke would thank her for this later. She fired.  
  
Luke made no move to deflect the bolt or snatch her blaster. The stun caught him in the back, and he collapsed. One of the guards caught him as he fell. Kraust dropped to the floor like a ton of bricks, coughing and gasping for air. Mara simply stood, rigid as a statue, eyes wide, her blaster dropping to the floor with a solid-sounding thunk.  
  
Rieekan turned to face her, his features gray as the durasteel walls. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "This was my fault."  
  
Mara swallowed and pressed her shaking hands together as reaction hit her. She had very nearly lost Luke. "I need to take him home," was all she could think to say, feeling a little bit dizzy and weak in the knees.  
  
The two guards were carefully hoisting her unconscious husband. Kraust was still on the floor, gasping, purple fingerprint bruises visible on his neck.  
  
Rieekan picked up her blaster for her. They carried Luke into the observation room and laid him carefully on the floor. Mara knelt at his side, grasping his slack hand in hers.  
  
"We can get him down to medical until he wakes up," Rieekan offered, kneeling at Luke's other side and checking his wrist for a pulse. The older man's eyes flashed to her guiltily. "I feel responsible for this—I should never have asked him to come here."  
  
Mara shook her head. "I think it would be better if we had an escort home," she answered. Luke needed to be home—needed her, not some prodding too-onebee droid. He needed to be released from this assignment and be kept as far away from Jerald Kraust as possible—and any other grim reminder of the bombing, for that matter.  
  
Rieekan nodded, lowering his eyes as he reached for his comlink. "We'll take care of it right away." He got to his feet. "Myrl?" He asked into the comlink. "I need two of your people up here right now."

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